Ah, I didn't know that there was an American version. Yes, it was in Danish with subtitles and mostly took place in Copenhagen. Sarah Lund, the principal investigator, was on her way to Sweden in the first episode but turned back when the body was found. There were 20 episodes altogether.

I enjoyed The Borgias, but I did want more plotting, political chicanery, etc. The only thing that really annoyed me, though, was seeing an actress in her twenties cast as 14-year-old Lucrezia Borgia. But it's interesting that Roderigo Borgia bought the papacy the same year another Italian sailed to a land he thought was India.

The Survivor merge sure as heck didn't help Matt any. Back to the island with him! Jeff pointed out that was a sure way to make Matt switch sides if he got back in the game again (which seems likely). Maybe, maybe not. Matt is so simple Rob might be able to talk him around.

Goodbye, Dan. I'm sorry he ruined it for Christina, but I'm happy that pompous know-it-all is gone. It looks as if the Goths go postal next time, unfortunately; I've been pulling for them and the Globetrotters. The cowboys will probably win.

Grim scene in The Borgias, all those corpses stuffed and positioned along a dinner table. That little tableau gave even Cesare's assassin pause. Della Rovere is proving remarkably hard to kill.

The Killing continues to intrigue, but I've given up on The Kennedys and Mildred Pierce. And I doubt if I'll stick with Camelot.

Camelot has eight more episodes to turn a teenager with bad hygiene into a man and a king. I wish them luck.

Did you see TV Guide's comments on the show?

The beauty of adapting the King Arthur legend is its historical vagueness. If experts can't even agree whether or not the man lived, then that leaves plenty of freedom to mess around. At turns the legend has been magical (Excalibur), sanitized (The Sword in the Stone) or cheeky (Monty Python and the Holy Grail). Friday's premiere of Starz's Camelot had moments both unexpected and unsettling. Here's how this umpteenth version distinguished itself:

1. It's rather tame. Oh, Eva Green's breasts pop up eight minutes in, but Starz's other semi-historical series Spartacus has desensitized us to graphic violence and sexuality. Still, we don't need stomach-churning action nor feel like drawing the blinds closed every Friday night just to watch television — so it's not necessarily a critique. And if the extreme is what you want, fear not: Plenty of people do die and many more bosoms are bared.

2. Young Arthur just wants to get some. This paragon of what's right begins his journey as a randy dude who sleeps with his brother's girl and is more interested in scoring than saving England. Boys!

3. Morgan spent 15 years in a nunnery. And we thought Maria Von Trapp was rebellious! Morgan definitely seems more worldly than everyone else in the series and even though she's evil, she has a streak of healthy feminism too. When she scorns Igraine for confessing, "No queen questions her king," we're on Morgan's side. What kind of cloister was she living in anyway?

4. Merlin's gone bald -- everywhere. Okay, not everywhere. And we do give the show credit for completely destroying all of our preconceived notions about how Merlin looks. But chrome dome or not, we at least figured there would be a sorcerer's beard or some kind of magical goatee.

5. What potion has Merlin been slipping everyone? Even if you believe in magic, what's his proof that Uther actually masqueraded as the other dude to impregnate Igraine? Why does Igraine continue to ask Merlin to perform life-saving miracles when he keeps letting her down? And why does Arthur let creepy Merlin just hover by his bed and yell at him about women in his dreams? How magical is Merlin, really?

6. Someone should call child services on Merlin. Not to keep harping on Merlin, but didn't he promise to watch over Arthur? Time and time again, Arthur puts himself in harms way, whether it's climbing up a waterfall or wandering off to the beach where any passing person with a sword (or angry chick who doesn't like being stared at) can hurt him. In each case, Merlin does nothing to safeguard his Once and Future King. No bodyguard, no spotter, no royal taste tester. What good are you, Merlin, except to spout cryptic nonsense?

7. It's just so '80s... 1980s not 1180s. Speaking of cryptic nonsense, we really didn't expect Camelot to resort to the protagonist who, in a time of crisis, remembers someone else's words and then speaks them aloud to emerge victorious. We're talking about the "Stop pulling at me and start pushing yourself" situation with Merlin that led to the successful extraction of the sword.

8. Arthur likes girls and gives good speech! That Arthur, despite his youth and inexperience, is pretty good with the speechifying. Perhaps this is part of why people follow him. "I am Arthur Pendragon and I am proud to be your king." No doubt the "And I approved this message" part got cut for time constraints.

9. Bieber gets Guinevere. Some knight with good hair named Leontes is already betrothed to Guinevere. Did you know that? We didn't! Girl gets around!

10. Hector's painful walk will stick with you. In a Spartacus-worthy moment, Hector gets impaled by a long staff and then walks forward, pushing the stick deeper and deeper through his bowels and out the other side of him, just so he can stab King Lot in the back. Ouch.

Camelot is determined to de-mystify the legend, to make it "real". Huh. Excalibur is a teen-aged girl, and she's trapped beneath the ice when Merlin freezes the lake and pokes a hole in the ice with the sword which Merlin takes from her, not Arthur. So much for the Lady in the Lake. The writers must have thought they were very clever, coming up with that "solution". I'm done with this show.

What annoyed me was the way Merlin was responsible for the deaths of both members of that family -- and for no reason! He and the swordmaker were pawing the ground at each other; all Merlin had to do was keep his mouth shut and nothing would have happened. Then the daughter (whoever names a girl "Excalibur"?) grabbed the sword and ran, terrified, and drowned because Merlin caused the lake to ice over. Why allow Merlin the magical power to do that but deny the magical Lady of the Lake? Merlin did try to rescue the girl by pounding on the ice with the hilt of his sword; I guess he knows a freezing spell but not a melting one. Then he goes out and gets himself beat to a pulp by a couple of thugs -- as punishment, as penance, to show he's not really a black-hearted villain, he has feelings, begorrah!

Whew, that was quite a Survivor last night! Phillip is a pompous, motormouth know-it-all in love with himself -- but he's still there and Julie is gone. I'd say the reason Rob targeted Julie is that in last week's Tribal, she said Rob had complete control of his group and it wasn't a tribe, it was a cult. The look Rob shot her when she said that spelled the end of her time in the game.